About the Author
Mary Schueller graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and a psychology minor. Added to this foundation was a certificate in technical writing and additional computer classes. However, the most important preparation is a continued passion for northern Wisconsin local history and being a voracious daily rea
der.
“Around 1998, I began researching my father’s service in the CCC and was very surprised that there was nothing in print other than newspaper articles in the Mellen Weekly-Record from 1935. In addition, I discovered CCC Work Progress Reports with pictures for Company D-692 found in the National Archives. This is when I also became interested in Creative Non-fiction to fill in the story gaps by physically taking road trips from Virden, IL to Makanda, IL, and then to Mellen, WI, to describe what I saw and then set it within an historical context.”
During a trip to Mellen, I stopped at the Historical Museum and introduced myself to the director, Mary Carol Granberg. We shared a similar vision of getting Copper Falls State Park placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Like peanut butter and jelly, we were a perfect team with Mary Carol providing the Mellen history that I lacked and with me providing the CCC history that she did not have. This project could not have been accomplished without the pictures taken by Kirk Knoll and Jeff Peters, both Mellen residents. In a collaborative effort, Copper Falls State Park was the very first of Wisconsin’s State Park sites to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 23, 2005 for its CCC and WPA Rustic Architecture, its contribution to conservation and Wisconsin Tourism. I wrote the document submitted to the State Historical Preservation Board which is the content of my first book Rustic Reflections of Copper Falls State Park.”
